Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Life As We Know It Blu-Ray Review

Reviewed by Jami Ferguson

I missed this movie in the theaters so I was glad to be given the chance to review this movie since I thought the previews looked cute. Life As We Know It stars Josh Duhamel and Katherine Heigl and it’s the typical romantic comedy that we’ve all seen a hundred times. I was curious to see if this one would be any different than the usual ones and I’m happy to say that this was really well done!

Film (4 out of 5 stars)

Life As We Know It stars Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up, Grey’s Anatomy) as Holly. Holly is a smart, funny, successful type-A personality who is set up on a date with Eric Messer, played by Josh Duhamel (Transformers, When In Rome). Messer, as he likes to be called is a sloppy looking carefree guy that shows up an hour late for his date with Holly. Holly and Messer make it all the way to her Smart Car where the date ends shortly after he takes a booty call from another girl. Holly would like nothing better than to never see Messer again, but her best friend is married to his best friend, and become God parents to their daughter Sophie.

A tragic accident leaves Sophie an orphan and Holly and Messer learn they have been named as the guardians for the little girl. Holly and Messer have no children of their own, and certainly had no plans for children in the near future. The loss of their friends and the new responsibilities as Sophie’s new parents turn their lives completely upside down.

Holly and Messer struggle greatly adjusting to their new life and they think about giving up. At the wake for their friends, they talk to all the family members looking for a suitable replacement. Neither the stripper , nor the geriatric grandfather with an oxygen tank could possibly take care of Sophie. Holly tells Messer that their friends loved Sophie more than anything in the world, and out of everyone – picked them. The pair have many funny first time parent moments, many involving dirty diapers or food.

Anyone who has had a child knows there are very accurate depictions of simple but stressful times. I often thought that at least first time parents have signed up for the job. I doubt that anyone can be completely prepared for parenthood but it helps to have some notice. At one point Holly finds a video of their friends fighting over having the nursery painted around the time of Sophie’s birth. They realize that their friends weren’t perfect and this is comforting to Holly and Messer as they struggle.

As with all good romantic comedies there are fights, break ups, job stresses and other relationships to make a hard situation worse. They develop a unique relationship with their Child Protective Services Case Worker, and get loads of advice from gay and straight couples who live on the block. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Holly, Messer and Sophie become a family. The triplets that played Sophie did a great job. Sophie isn’t just a prop in the movie, she is a supporting actress. Josh Duhamel and Katherine Heigl were very well cast and make great parents. If they did have a child of their own one day that would probably be a baby so cute you couldn’t look directly at it! Chick flick fans will also be thrilled, as I was, to see Josh Lucas have a major role. The hard part is deciding who you want Katherine Heigl to end up with because both choices are spectacular.

Video (4 out of 5 stars)

Life As We Know It is presented in 1080p High Definition 16×9 with a 2.4:1 aspect ratio. The picture quality is sharp, clear and the colors are vivid and bright to the point of almost being over-saturated. This is a mostly bright movie but the few dark moments of the movie look good as well with deep dark black levels. Flesh tones are natural and remain so throughout the movie.

Audio (4 out of 5 stars)

Life As We Know It has a polished DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that hits all the right notes for the most part. There’s some discrete panning across the channels and the dialogue is clear and never overshadowed by the soundtrack. While being a romantic comedy, the sound quality for this was better than expected. It’s detailed enough that you can hear the squishing of Sophie’s diapers and the splatter of her spit up for those interested in details.

Special Features (4 out of 5 stars)

This Blu-ray has some decent extras that I enjoyed quite a bit. Most of them aren’t serious but they are a lot of fun!

A Survival Guide to Instant Parenting – Cast members offer outrageously funny child rearing advice that would make the PTA cringe. Stars and supporting cast discuss topics like Kiss your sex life goodbye, Divide and Conquer, and Pick your Battles – all things parents to be should know.

Katherine Heigl: Becoming the Best Mom Ever – See all the touching, funny and challenging moments Katherine faced in becoming an overnight mom. Its interesting to learn that she began shooting this movie four days after becoming a mom herself. It must have been a very unique experience for her.

Josh Duhamel: The Triplet Tamer – Josh gets sentimental and brims with charm as he wins the admiration of his three little leading ladies. Here we meet the triplet girls that played Sophie. Their mom explains that Josh spent a week bonding with the girls before shooting and they are obviously very comfortable with their leading man.

Deleted scenes – There are a lot of deleted scenes and they are definitely worth watching. The running time of the movie is 114 minutes so I see why they had to make cuts, but there are some cute scenes with Sophie I’m glad I got to see.

Final Thoughts (4 out of 5 stars)

The Life As We Know It Blu-Ray is a combo pack with the DVD and Digital Copy. All the adjectives I can think of to describe it are synonyms for cute – sweet, delightful, endearing, charming, etc. I’m interested to know if my husband will like it nearly as much as I did. While I can’t guess how much the men reading this article will enjoy it I can guarantee that they will score big points with their wives for watching it. Extra points if they suggest it!